


Cusped

by misura



Category: Path to Ascendancy - Ian Cameron Esslemont, The Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson
Genre: Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-05-06 04:02:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14633673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: Surly, before the rise and fall.





	Cusped

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cadmean](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cadmean/gifts).



The same plain speech that had once lost her a kingdom would now win her an empire.

_Had you been here, would you have appreciated the irony of that, Carthenon?_

Tarel had promised the Napan people glory and riches, to make the Napan marine feared and famous, to once and for all time end the Malazan nuisance - and they had been all too eager to believe him.

Not quite enough not to force his hand, true. In trying to kill her, Tarel had quite possibly done her the greatest service and kindness he had ever done her, driving her from her home only to end up here, poised to take control of an empire the likes of which he had never even dreamt of.

_Five, ten years from now, will you look at me as fondly, Kellanved?_ An idle question: she had no intention of making the same mistake Tarel had, in letting her get away with her life.

There had never been much love lost between the two of them. She didn't know why. Perhaps the adults around them had made them too aware of their rivalry, the truth that only one of them might inherit the Napan crown.

_"The advantage of trying to usurp a kingdom is that the number of people who think they deserve the rulership more than you do is finite."_ One of Kellanved's sayings - or so the historians would no doubt claim. Personally, she rather thought it sounded like an assassin's point of view.

Kill the royal family, and wait for the would-be heirs to crawl out of the woodwork and plunge the kingdom into utter chaos without needing to lift a finger.

_Not so empires._ And yet, if not her, then who? Who else stood as close to Kellanved, or might go toe to toe with Dancer on their best day? Who else had the means, an organization as lethal as the Claw at their command, to ensure the transition of power ran smoothly?

Who else had the clarity of vision to cry, _Enough!_ , to stop accepting an empire ruled by an emperor who was not only mad, but absent as often as not? Who was obsessed with all sorts of things except, it was becoming clear, running an empire?

_I could have forgiven you nearly anything, Kellanved, but not incompetence. Not ... carelessness._

_If it takes my death to make you start paying attention, it is a price I will accept._

_If not, then know that there is nothing personal in this._


End file.
